Back to School: Facts About Academic Cheating

Academic cheating, which is one of the most serious offenses a high school or college student can commit, is caused by four basic factors: the fear of disappointing family members, the conflicting due dates of assignments, the fear of not getting a good career, and the fear of not keeping up with peers.

The main cause of students committing academic cheating is the fear that they have of disappointing their family, especially their parents. Many kids that have parents that went to college and became very successful feel that if they don't do as well as their parents did, then they will be a big disappointment to them. So instead of doing the work themselves and finding out what they are capable of, they resort to cheating to come out on top.

The second cause of academic cheating is the conflicting due dates of assignments. It can become pretty stressful when the due dates of assignments conflict with each other. Many kids do not plan ahead and set a time to complete a particular assignment. As time goes on, the number of major assignments needing to be completed increases, and before the student knows it, he/she has a half dozen assignments due within a couple of days of each other. For instance, a student may have a twenty page research paper, a science project, and a history project due in the same week, and he/she may have not even started on the history project. This is a case of bad planning. When the students realize that they are buried up to their knees in uncompleted assignments, they end up copying and pasting information from the Internet in order to put together a research paper. Such poor planning leads to another serious academic crime: cheating.

The fear of not getting a good career, although not always an immediate cause, plays an important role in a student looking over his/her shoulder at another student's test paper. A situation of this nature is more likely to occur in college because it is at this time that a person is really working towards a career. High school kids, especially the younger ones, are less likely to know what career they want to pursue. People who are in college are more likely to know what career they want to pursue, so if they feel like they are falling behind in their studies, then they are more likely to commit academic cheating.

The fear of not keeping up with peers, although not a main cause, is another reason why high school students and some college students commit such a serious offense. High school kids are more likely to worry about not keeping up with their peers. The last thing a high school senior wants is to be left behind when all of the others graduate and go on to college. College students are less likely to worry about something of this nature. Competition between college students seems to be less prevalent than it is between high school students.

By committing a serious offense like academic cheating, a student will never really know what he/she is capable of doing. Also, students will not gain all of the skills needed to perform in society. A person cannot learn to think for himself or herself by trying to imitate what another person does. Another result of academic cheating is that the students put themselves in danger of being kicked out of school. Many high schools, colleges, and universities will expel students if they are found to be guilty of academic cheating.

There is no reason for a student, whether in high school or college, to commit a serious offense like academic cheating. There are ways to keep from resorting to such drastic measures. First of all, if a student is having trouble in school, he/she can go to a professor, school counselor, family member, or a friend for extra help or advice. Second, students should always plan ahead for assignments so that they don't fall behind in their classes. For instance, if a student has a fifteen page research paper that is due in four weeks, and a science project that is also due in four weeks, then he/she can spend two week working on the research paper and two weeks on the science project. Also, students can post due dates for assignments on a calendar. That way, they will always be reminded when an assignment is due. By doing assignments ahead of time, students not only reduce the chances of being buried alive, but they also reduce the chances of committing academic cheating.

Academic cheating, a very serious academic crime, is an offense that is committed by high school and college students because of the fear that they have of disappointing their family, as well as falling behind in their classes. Although school can be stressful and some classes can be intimidating, there are ways for students to cope with the stress.